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How One Man Turns Annoying Cold Calls Into Cash
First time accepted submitter georgeaperkins writes "A man targeted by marketing companies is making money from cold calls with his own premium-rate phone number. So far he's made £300 profit following a £10+VAT initial investment. The premium rate regulator has 'strongly discouraged' the practice, as it violates the code of practice. Nevertheless, the novel idea is sure to resonate with everyone worn down by mindless cold calling!"
This is epic win.
Now that's an idea.
Well I guess even whores have a code of practice.
"I'm calling because I'm selling this great new product that can save you time and money."
"Now that sounds very interesting! Could you hang on for a moment, I'll be back in a minute."
** leaves phone off hook **
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Anyone understand how this violates the 'code of practice' and if such a violation is just frowned upon or is actually illegal ?
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
I've got a personal number which costs more to ring than a standard mobile line, I set it up for the similar reasons, after entering details of an accident when I renewed my insurance I got bombarded by ambulance chasers.
The only difference is that I don't get a cut of the call costs, I just wanted a way to give a telephone number on websites which comes through to my mobile phone but could easily be rerouted to voicemail off when the frequency of spam calls gets too high.
Family and friends all get my real number while all companies get the forwarding number so I know that sending everything from the forwarding number to voicemail isn't going to affect people I actually want to talk to.
These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
I take your money.
There should be a number prefix reserved for personal use without the requirement to give pricing information with the number. A "don't call me unless you're willing to pay me" number prefix.
...he should patent the idea!
In Hong Kong it costs money to receive calls, they call it a connection fee. Which means that people simply never answer calls to unfamiliar numbers. It there such a thing in the US? As far as I know there is no such thing as a connection fee in the UK.
Where I'm from you need to have an automated message before the actual call, that tells how much the call is going to cost per minute.
I doubt this scheme would work in this northern country.
Oh my god, the Irony that BBC is asking for the reader's phone number below the TFA...
But, now hes told everyone how to make money with cold calls. Every marketing company will simply block 0871 numbers.
Great job for making some cash, but did you have to tell the whole fkin marking world have to prevent it?
I joined the Telephone Preference Service. I get almost no cold calls; those who do call me are generally breaking the law and don't tend to call back when they are told that. I do get a few calls from companies dodging TPS by calling from outside the UK, mind you, but maybe once every week.
I like this guy's style but it's scarcely necessary.
premium numbers.
£1 is only 1/100th my normal rate
if you try i'm sure you can work that into EVERY post and not just 2 of 2
I got called about 4 times a week and after repeated requests to them to stop calling me, I made up a false name and had their representatives go to a derelict house for 'me' to sign the documents. They called me back pretty quickly and I explained that this is what would happen every time they called my number from now on. Miraculously I have not had a call since.
This American Life had an interesting story written J. Goldstein about his time as a telemarketer.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/205/plan-b?act=4
The premium rate 09 lines you are talking about are separately regulated and abuse is prosecuted.
The only abuse here is the cold-calling (I am, of course, writing from an ethics point of view, which should not be confused with the legal or telco views.)
If human, ask them how they got the number and if I had previous business relationship in the past. Most collections are illegal, they will hangup immediately never to call again, because these words mean trouble to them.
Robots: Reported to the FCC, everytime.
They could wind up calling Lenny. http://itslenny.com/
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Personally I'm bothered that it bothers them. Obvisouly there is no rule yet that you can't use premium call services to get paid by telemarketeers because they are just people. The regulator seems to think that it's wrong that telemarketeers are compensating him for wasting his time. Why? They are a bunch of corporate sellouts thats why.
But... the future refused to change.
I used to be pretty patient, but after getting hammered with them for the first 3-4 years after I bought my house, I developed terribly rude phone etiquette. Just this morning, I got probably the 20th call from a "doctor's group" trying to sell me chiropractic services after I've told them each time "no, please remove me from your calling list". I think that's the biggest annoyance. People I've never had business with, told 10 times "I'm not interested" will continue to call every month or two.
One trick that has worked is to get them into their sales pitch, put the phone down (still connected) and simply go on about your day.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
All of SE Asia is like those. Incoming texts and calls are always free to the receiver, only the sender pays.
Just forward those calls to our good friend Lenny over at http://www.itslenny.com/
Why yes sir, I *would* like to take your survey that takes "only five minutes".
And imagine dropping the number into every political database from every party... talk about re-distribution of wealth!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Unfortunately this is not supported in the US - all premium rate numbers are in the 900 area code, and I expect telemarketers generally avoid calling these.
The EU practice of allowing these on any calling block would allow this in the US. I'm not sure the additional annoyance would be worth it.
Seriously. If you want a shrink you have to pay a fortune. If you want to go to confession that's a whole big deal. If you want to just vent your friends and family get bored after a while. But here are these guys who call you up and won't hang up on you no matter how you blather on as long as you don't get abusive. Try it. The limit seems to be 45 minutes, then they say goodbye and hang up.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.